Stand Perfectly Still: Statues, Nudity, and the Pygmalion Myth in Victorian Theatre and Culture

Stephen Guy-Bray argues that though the story of Pygmalion has taken various forms in the nineteenth century, “it is often read as a story of artistic and sexual triumph” (447). But a sexual triumph for whom? My thesis addresses questions pertaining to how the nude female body is vieon the theatrical stage by focusing specifically on the myth of Pygmalion as presented in W. S. Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. I argue that the image of the moving statue, especially in the melodramatic tradition of the pose plastique and tableau vivant, creates instability for the viewer by evoking notions of human mortality that the stone human body embodies. The portrayal of the nude female form within paintings provides an insight into the lack of female agency within the Pygmalion myth by highlighting the buying and selling of women’s bodies and questions of female personhood and the performance of class.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in English

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Wallen, Maggie Elizabeth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Daniel Novak
• Peter Reed
• Ian Whittington

• female consent
• Galatea
• mythology
• Pygmalion
• Shaw
• W.S. Gilbert
• English Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1194

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2193